#OMG - I've turned into that weird Opinel guy....what the heck!!!

SAK Guy said:
Hey! My NOS Coghlans Camp Knife just arrived in the mail and it's a # 9! I thought it was a # 8. :thumbup:

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Neat!

Mine is a 7. The slim handle is great!
 
Well you know a knife knut who does not like Opinels is about like a man who doesn't like dogs. He's just not to be trusted.
 
I am around a lot of knife carrying people as I sharpen knives as a hobby and part time income. People often are proud of their fancy modern folders, and what they paid for them. Often the more they paid, the prouder they are. They will show me their knives an give a short story about them all the time beaming from ear to ear. If they don't ask me what I carry (I eagerly await this question) I will pull my #6 out of my pocket. Their faces often fall, and politely ask, "what kind of knife is that? I give a short description and and open it up and hand it to them, warning them that it is sharp. Most will feel the blade cautiously and remark that "Boy, that thing is really sharp!

I usually smile and say "you too can have one of these special knives for the tidy sum of less than $20 delivered to your door. That is usually when the "yeah butt's," start to come out. I just smile and say that if I break it or loose it, that I don't have to beg the wife for another one. Not that I have ever done either with my little #6. I have about 20 knives in my overall collection, and the other 19 might as well be safe queens as I only use and carry my #6 nowadays.

Blessings,

Omar
 
Ohallum points out an interesting conundrum about the knife hobby. There are some very popular $300+ knives out there with very thick blade stock and poor cutting performance, and then there are the sub $30 knives with amazing cutting performance. I'm guilty of owning overly expensive knives, but I have to admit I'm less willing to work them hard than I am with my cheaper Opinels and Moras. I see it as a positive thing though. I know that no matter how poor I get, I can afford to have a high performance cutting tool in my pocket.
 
"Knife in Water"
Garden #8 Slim handle, spear blade, stainless.....doesn't rust.:-) very stylish!
Apologies to Richard Diebencorn
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Got the kids together, combed their hair and made 'em line up for a pic! :D

From the top: No. 12, No. 9 camp, No. 8 CS, No. 8 SS, and a No. 8 Garden
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Need a No. 10 and I'll be done for a while on Opies.
 
cchu518 said:
There has ALWAYS been some dude who I imagined, just came out of the bush somewhere after a 2 week trek who would jump into some random thread titled something like, "What is the nastiest cutter on the market under $XX or $XXX," or "Best EDC steel in a knife S30V or VG10...blah blah blah".... and the random (in my head I'm envisioning) bushcrafter dude who just came out of Zion national park or something, who survived 3 weeks out there with a tin cup, army issue surplus boots a horse blanket, and half a stale snickers bar would throw out, "OPINELS cut the best, go try one!!!" in the middle of someone's thread. It wouldn't matter if the OP was talking about CRK's, Damascus sprint run benchies, Spyderco's or CRKT's.

There was always that one random dude whose answer is always Opinel...
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A quick BF search says I've been "that guy" since January 26, 2001.

Sorry 'bout that. :o
 
Dang Opinels,I had a 6 & gave it away then I got a Coghlans 7,now I can't wait to get another one.:rolleyes:
It sure is a good thing they're cheap.:thumbup:
 
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I carry a #10 for work, and #8 for play (sometimes it is replaced by an SAK) I think the #9 is the best all around Opi...if I had bought that size first I don't think I'd carry the others. As it is I have a couple #9s awaiting mods, just have several other projects to do first, and I have been trying to break the #10 (with normal hard use it does not look like it will happen).
 
Sure thing that Coghlan handle is perfect with the yatagan blade. Opinel should make more of their standard range with that handle (and nice woods like walnut, ebony, juniper...). That would be a treat...
 
pinnah said:
Q,

Speaking as a klutz to a klutz, I've found that the willingness to fail repeatedly can, in time, compensate. Tom Watson, then President of IBM (back in the "THINK" days) said that success is a matter of failing faster than the competition. My approach to this has been to gift my "failures" to friends (or to send them out on internet pass arounds).

I'm a bike mechanic. I would put the complexity of the mods on my Opinels on par with changing a rear tire on a bike. Tools are required and you'll get your hands dirty.

Those knives have 4 mods: the lock ring has been tuned, the blade tip has been filed to a drop point, the butt end has been rounded off and the wood stained. I give some more details on how I do it here:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/28597626/tuning-opinels.txt

I don't bother rounding the handle on 8s and smaller. For the 9 and 10, I like the end rounded a bit. I clamp 80 grit sand paper to my work bench (a tip suggested by Sitflyer) and rub the handled on that to get the basic shape. First pass along the top back to bring it flat and in line with the rest of the back of the handle. Second pass is angled forward of vertical along the very end of the knife so that I get that slope. Third pass is to split the difference between the first and second pass. From the side, it looks something like 3 edges of a stop sign (flat, 45 degrees, just forward of vertical).

After this I round off the angles with sweeping rounded strokes on the sand paper. This gives the round profile from the side.

Lastly, I use 80 grit on a sanding block to round off and blend the rather squared off "cut" with the rest of the handle.

I stick with 80 grit for sanding. Minwax stain for color (I like English Chestnut). Formby's Tung Oil Finish for top coat. Many layers of Formby's. Sand with 800 and 2000 grit on the final coats.
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Thanks! That's a lot of info!

I have a question about the staining and the coating: do you apply them with a brush or do you dip the handle in the pot?

After i read your post and the bit about failure I ended up buying a no7 to play with it, here are a couple of pictures. I forced a patina with coke and ketchup, and i tried to whittle the handle to make it look like a katana handle. I couldn't do it on the sides because i had already made an easy opening notch.
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Any suggestion is welcome, but for tools i just have my opinel no8, some 80 grit sandpaper and a revlon metal nail file :D
My next step will be to coat the losanges, and to stain the rest of the handle black or very dark.
 
I also intend to make some kind of tanto point when i have the funds to buy a dremel. Is it hard to do?
 
Bob...I think a lot of the guys on bf have been that guy, but you are definitely oone of the early birds!

On a fun note I carved Halloween pumpkins with the opi just last night. Tons of fun!
 
Ok, I caved...got a Slim No. 8 Bubinga Inox on the way! My first exotic wood Opinel..... :)
 
we had one pail of tomatoes waiting to be cut up for my wife's awsome fancy home-made catsup recipe, and since I had a brand new no. 8 in carbon steel that needed a patina, and I wanted to at least pretend that the patina originated from actual use, I cut up 8 lbs of tomatoes with it. That worked great. one of these days I will figure out how to post a photo, I hope.
 
W.M.B. said:
image fail.
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Are you uploading the image to a place like Photobucket? Then open the page at Photobucket (or other image hosting site) with your image on it and right-click on the image and choose "copy image location" Then come here a paste it (CTRL-V ) into the image box prompt.
 
My Slim No. 8 Bubinga Inox arrived in today's mail!!! Wow!
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Size comparison to Garden Knife:
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